Disclosed herein are methods for controlling printing, as well as corresponding apparatus and computer-readable medium.
Image forming devices such as printers, copiers and multi-function devices provide users the ability to print from a device such as a desktop or laptop computer, a handheld computer, or other electronic devices, to a printer connected to the device. The electronic devices may be stand alone devices, or may be connected in a network, such as in a business computing environment, which may include one or more printers.
In order for a printer to interface with and function with the computer to which it is connected, a printer driver can typically be installed on the computer. A printer driver is software which controls the printer from the computer. The printer driver may include a user interface which may be typically accessed by a user through an operating system or an application program, such as a word processing program, a spreadsheet program, or other types of programs, and viewed on a display.
Printer drivers in use may include default settings. The default settings may allow a user to set and save default settings for use with the printer. For example, a user may be able to set default settings such as paper size, tray to print from, draft or high-quality mode, various color options, page layout, and the like. When such default settings are set, and the user later prints, the default settings will automatically be used, usually unless the user manually changes one or more of the settings. The default settings will also apply across all applications that the printer is used with, and for all documents. For example, the default setting would be used when printing from a word processing application, from a spreadsheet application, from a drawing application, from a browser application, and for all documents printed from the applications.
When print driver software is created by the manufacturer, the manufacturer may set some manufacturer default settings (also known as factory defaults), that may be specified by the device's manufacturer. An administrator may set administrator default settings. Further, a user may set user default settings for the print driver. Current printer drivers do not include a clear presentation of this information that is easy to understand and allows intuitive use of default features by users and administrators.